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Establishing and Evaluating the Key Functions of an Interactive Systems Framework Using an Assets-Getting to Outcomes Intervention

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

Community practitioners can face difficulty in achieving outcomes demonstrated by prevention science. Building a community practitioner’s prevention capacity—the knowledge and skills needed to conduct critical prevention practices—could improve the quality of prevention and its outcomes. The purpose of this article is to: (1) describe how an intervention called Assets-Getting To Outcomes (AGTO) was used to establish the key functions of the ISF and present early lessons learned from that intervention’s first 6 months and (2) examine whether there is an empirical relationship between practitioner capacity at the individual level and the performance of prevention at the program level—a relationship predicted by the ISF but untested. The article describes an operationalization of the ISF in the context of a five-year randomized controlled efficacy trial that combines two complementary models designed to build capacity: Getting To Outcomes (GTO) and Developmental Assets. The trial compares programs and individual practitioners from six community-based coalitions using AGTO with programs and practitioners from six similar coalitions that are not. In this article, we primarily focus on what the ISF calls innovation specific capacity and discuss how the combined AGTO innovation structures and uses feedback about its capacity-building activities, which can serve as a model for implementing the ISF. Focus group discussions used to gather lessons learned from the first 6 months of the AGTO intervention suggest that while the ISF may have been conceptualized as three distinct systems, in practice they are less distinct. Findings from the baseline wave of data collection of individual capacity and program performance suggest that practitioner capacity predicts, in part, performance of prevention programs. Empirically linking practitioner capacity and performance of prevention provides empirical support for both the ISF and AGTO.

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Notes

  1. Getting to Outcomes and “GTO” are registered trademarks of the RAND Corporation and the University of South Carolina.

  2. Developmental Assets is a registered trademark of Search Institute.

  3. US Census 2000.

  4. According to the 2006 Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey (http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/osa/data/mydaus/mydaus2006.htm).

  5. This interview is described in more detail under Measures, Program Performance.

  6. Nine programs folded between the time the study was planned and begun, leaving only 51 programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, 4570 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Matthew Chinman & Andrea Phillips

  2. RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA, 22202-5050, USA

    Joie Acosta

  3. RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA, 90407-2138, USA

    Patricia Ebener,  Q Burkhart, Sarah Hunter & Susan Paddock

  4. 55 Victor Road, Portland, ME, 04103, USA

    Michael Clifford

  5. Department of Psychology, University of New England, Biddeford, ME, 04005, USA

    Maryann Corsello

  6. Vision Training Associates, Search Institute Training, P.O. Box 338, Gorham, ME, 04038-0338, USA

    Tim Duffey

  7. 43 West Old Orchard Ave., Old Orchard Beach, ME, 04064, USA

    Margaret Jones

  8. Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME, 04104-9300, USA

    Michel Lahti

  9. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Patrick S. Malone

  10. Spurwink Services, 899 Riverside St., Portland, ME, 04103, USA

    Susan Savell

  11. Office of the President, Search Institute, c/o 940 Chestnut Ridge Road, Manchester, MO, 63021, USA

    Peter C. Scales

  12. Search Institute, 615 First Avenue N.E., Minneapolis, MN, 55413-2254, USA

    Nancy Tellett-Royce

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  1. Matthew Chinman
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  2. Joie Acosta
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  3. Patricia Ebener
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  4. Q Burkhart
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  8. Sarah Hunter
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Correspondence to Matthew Chinman.

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Chinman, M., Acosta, J., Ebener, P. et al. Establishing and Evaluating the Key Functions of an Interactive Systems Framework Using an Assets-Getting to Outcomes Intervention. Am J Community Psychol 50, 295–310 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-012-9504-z

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